China, the world’s greatest nation of smokers

This video clip from MSNBC has one shocking statistic — China has one third of the world’s smokers. That’s 350 million, more than the population of the United States. This also comes as news to us: that Beijing is going to ban indoor smoking from May, ahead of the Olympics. Whether this will work remains to be seen. One restaurant chain that has enforced the smoking ban ahead of schedule is already complaining that it is losing business and that customers have deserted it in droves.